Frank is our host this Thursday and he has brought us the tricky trimester. He explains that a line in a poem written in trimeter is one that has three accented syllables or three feet. The number of unaccented syllables is not as important as the number of accented ones. His first example has three accented syllables and seven unaccented syllables:

In the HOUSE on my SIDE of the STREET.

This line also has three “feet”: (1) “In the HOUSE”, (2) “on my SIDE” and (3) “of the STREET”.

Another example has only two unaccented syllables:

TALE as OLD as TIME

To help us hear the trimester sound, Frank has also shared a link to a YouTube video of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, from which the second example was taken. In that example trimeter was in every line. Sometimes it is mixed with another meter such as tetrameter, or four feet per line. Robert Burns’ ‘My Love is Like a Red Red Rose’ is an example of this.

Another common use of trimeter is in limericks. The first, second and fifth lines of a limerick each have three accented syllables. The third and fourth lines are in dimeter, or two feet per line.

A line of trimeter can be used by itself effectively. In advertising a memorable trimeter line can stand on its own representing a brand.

For the challenge, Frank asks us to write a poem that uses trimeter lines. All of the lines in the poem do not have to be in trimeter, but enough should be that one can tell this meter was used on purpose. The poems do not have to rhyme nor have any other sound qualities about them.

If you take a boat (prefereably the Ra boat, which is solar powered and silent) out on the Norfolk Broads in summer, dragonflies abound. Usually they zoom in and out of our willow trees but this year I haven’t seen as many. I love them!